


and I'm free

by thirteenohtwo



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:54:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirteenohtwo/pseuds/thirteenohtwo
Summary: The Mighty Nein take a leap of freedom.





	and I'm free

There’s gotta be some kind of symbolism in a giant, beautiful waterfall spilling off the side of the cliff they’ve been marching on for hours. It  _feels_  like symbolism or poetry, or just really fucking nice to see. A breath of fresh air after hours, and hours, and hours of jagged grey rock.

To have this narrow passage open up into such green, to have the sound of the roaring water they’ve been dragging themselves beside explode into something so much bigger and somehow quieter. Less pressure and more volume, and it’s loud - they have to shout to hear each other, but it’s so worth it. To look over and see the water bursting free over the cliff face, into the pocket of green - dense trees so full of colour, so full of life - spilling down into a crystal clear bowl of blue below.

Beau’s fingers twitch, behind the others who tiptoe near the edge to look down.

**.**

**.**

**.**

“Well, that’s just perfect!” Nott croaks, her voice high and shrill to be heard over the roaring of the water. Not as sharp in their ears anymore, but now it’s everywhere. “It’s going to take us forever to climb down.”

Fjord leans closer, hooking his head over the edge, and gasps when someone grabs him. He looks back, Yasha’s firm nod, and feels much better about leaning out to look at the face of this cliff. “Kinda sharp, very wet. It’s gonna be dangerous,” he shouts and scuffles back. “Not to mention how thick the trees are down there. Could be anything in them.”

They could always turn back, head down the path and collect more scraped knees and elbows - find a different way down. “Or I could cast Feather Fall on a bunch of us, while you and Jester take any who remain with your teleportation spells,” Caleb suggests. Fjord hooks an eyebrow up and the wizard smiles, his fuzzy face crinkling with genuine joy. “I have only seen waterfalls in books.”

“They’re as dangerous as they are pretty,” Fjord warns. Winks. “But they’re mighty pretty.”

Yasha glances between herself and Caduceus. Blood smears her bare arms, and Cad rubs at his shoulder. “I think that’s the best option. It was very cramped in the passage, I would prefer not to go back.”

With everyone in agreement, Caleb steps back from the edge and pulls one of his books out. “Okay, here we-”

“Someone revivify me if I go splaaaaaaaaaaat!” Beau shouts as a streak of blue shoulders through them all.

A second too late, Jester’s hand strikes out light lightning. No baggy clothes or vestments to grab, no sash trailing behind her.  _“Beau!”_

Just a monk, throwing herself off the cliff, arms stretched out to the sides. A pool of blue beneath her, green as far as her eyes can see, with the wind rushing through her loose hair. Soaring, untouchable. No shitty parents, no confining organizations. No tragic backstories and fallen friends. No precarious rescue missions and ancient gods.

Just Beau.

Falling.

_Flying._

**.**

**.**

**.**

Yasha’s arms hang limply at her sides, she watches Jester throw her fists in the air. “I have no diamonds!” she screeches at their friend.

But Beau is gone, just a trail of laughter behind her.

When Fjord grunts in surprise, Yasha lets a smile crack across her face. Stuffing anything loose, anything she isn’t willing to give to the waterfall, inside the bag of holding. “You can’t seriously be thinking of following that lunatic!” Nott cries.

“Molly wouldn’t hesitate,” she mumbles and stalks back for a run-up.

Molly might have even beat her to it.

And though Yasha can’t actually fly, not even with her wings, she imagines this is what it feels like. The wind in her hair, her braids, whipping against her cheeks sharp enough to burn, sharp enough to  _feel._

If she closes her eyes, she can almost hear his laugh in the echo of Beau’s.

**.**

**.**

**.**

“We just lost our two tanks!” Nott shouts and waves her fist. “Are they crazy? Are they insane? Are they possessed?!”

Crouched behind her, Caleb hands his harness and books to Nott with delicate care. “I  _was_  all three, you know,” he says softly. Rolls up his coat for the haversack. “Are you going to be able to carry all of this down on your own?”

Her shoulders slump. “Yeah, yeah. Go have fun, I guess. Play in the murder water and-”

An enormous and very naked Firbolg streaks past them, launching himself off the side and tucking into a cannonball. Caleb blinks. “You can’t unsee that.”

“Oh, like you want to. I’m travelling with a bunch of deviants. Go, go leap to your impending doom. I’ll be the responsible one, floating like a beautiful fairy off to the side.”

His eyes crinkle with his smile and it might be the best afternoon he’s had in a while now. “I’ll give you a push, aim you right for the edge and maybe even beat you down there to catch you.”

**.**

**.**

**.**

“Should we be worried that Nott took our clothes without asking if we’re jumping?” Fjord chuckles.

A blue finger is held up to him, Jester scowling over the edge as Caleb gets smaller and smaller in the distance. “Like hell we aren’t after all of that. Did they make it to the bottom yet? They could all be dead, Fjord!”

“True,” he muses and crosses his arms. Leans forward to try and look, just as Caleb’s shape disappears into the water. “Not a lot of movement down there but sometimes it’s nice to just float. Enjoy the moment, you know?”

“Not when there’s danger around every corner!”

Her eyes are… frantic. Tired. Stressed. Fjord fights his frown to keep the reassuring smile on his face, pouring on the charming maybe a little more than necessary. Jester needs this, they all need this. Beau might have had the right idea. “When is there not? Sometimes you gotta carve out the peace in your life, Jester.”

She gasps as he kicks off backwards from the edge, jerking forward to watch and make sure he clears the jagged rocks.

**.**

**.**

**.**

“You assholes keep leaving me!” she shouts down at the water.

With a fucking jet on high blast beside her.

And noise, any words,  _anything_ … swallowed by the waterfall. “I don’t want you to leave me!” she shouts experimentally. Nothing. No echo. Just her and the water, with her friends somewhere down below. “I’m afraid of losing you! I don’t want to be alone.”

Jester hooks her toes over the edge.

“What will I do without any of you?”

**.**

**.**

**.**

It was… a long drop. By the time she breaks free of the surface, gasping air into her aching lungs, she regrets holding her breath at the top of the cliff.

Beau wipes her eyes but can’t wipe off her grin. “I don’t wanna say you landed on me but fucking hell, Jess, you landed on me,” she laughs.

Jester shakes her head, her smile brilliant and bright against her dark skin. “Sorry, Beau…” she drawls.

Brown cheeks flush and Beau coughs, dips below to come back up and float on her back instead of staying caught in that gaze. “Took you long enough to get down here.”

“Oh, sorry I had to make sure everyone got down safe!”

“That’s a relative term!” Nott shouts from a tree overhooking the pond.

Fjord snickers and just as Caleb turns to him, raises a green hand, palm up - and the wizard is launched twenty feet into the air again, to splash back into the water. “That’s for my apple this morning!”

“You brute!” Nott gasps and clings to the tree. “Yasha, get him!”

The smile hasn’t left her face since the moment she stepped off the cliff, drifting serenely in the water.

Caduceus pops up from the depths nearby, his hair a mess of pink with petals or leaves, maybe, tangled in it. His lips stretch up in a grin, ears flicking like a cow’s. “This is-”

“Let me guess. Great?”

He considers this and blinks at Beau. “I was going to say excellent but great works, too.”

“You still naked, Caddyshack?”

“… are you all not?” he genuinely wonders.

“No, I’m Nott!” Nott chirps with a crooked grin.

“I know you’re not, you don’t like the water.”

“No, it’s a joke,” she explains quickly. “I’m  _Nott.”_

“Oh. Not what?”

“No, not not.”

“Who’s there?”

“Nott.”

Jester cracks and dissolves into giggles while Beau just stares for a really,  _really_  long time. “What the shit?” she whispers and nudges the tiefling, but Jester smiles and the purple of her eyes sparkle, and Beau swallows her own heart.

Their fingers interlace beneath the surface of the water and, for the moment, life is pretty good.


End file.
